If you ride, do it like a professional. Full face helmet and leathers. The pros wear these because they want to be able ride again after an accident. Whenever I read/hear a rider say that a helmet would not have helped, I think it is just rationalization for bad choices. Think of your family and your friends. Wear the proper gear.

If you regularly ride a motorcycle without a helmet, then at least make sure you have your organ donor card filled out, a will for your family, and life insurance. That way, your loved ones can remember you fondly as a person who was thinking of others inspite of your childish disregard for Newton's Laws of motion.

What do all professional motorcyclists - whether motocross, superspeedway, or dragracers - have in common? Full face helmets and full leathers. And, that's for riding on closed courses with no traffic and no distracted automobiles. But, what the heck? Recreational bikers clearly have better training, better reflexes, better equipment, and far greater control over their bikes than mere professional motorcyclists. So, of course it makes sense for the recreational rider to wear little or no protective gear. Heck, I'd don't see why a recreational biker even needs front brakes when the rear brakes should be sufficient given their far greater abilities and the fact that the absense of a helmet makes a rider almost superhuman.

In this regard, Cooley is not different from any number of supposed "Not for Profit" organizations in the US where the top officials give themselves ridiculous salaries. Cooley is about as "Not for Profit" as the National Football League. Oh wait. That's right. The NFL is also a Non-Profit - that just happens to bring in $9 Billion a year to dole out to its owners and players. Having said that, the salaries and benefits paid to top officials and top professors at Cooley are very generous. And, my guess is that, in the coming years, the center of gravity of Cooley will move to Florida so that these high paid folks can take full advantage of Florida's state income tax (0% rate) while enjoying the sun and fun.

No. Liquidation is when a business enters bankruptcy but lacks the necessary financing (called debtor in possession financing) to continue operating. The assets of the business are sold off to pay creditors and the business ceases to exist (or continues as a paper only company). If GM went into bankruptcy without adequate financing, it would have been forced to liquidate. The only reason GM could be reorganized and made leaner was that it had financing. In the winter of 2008, there was not going to be financing from a non-government source due to the financial crisis. The government had to allocate $800 Billion just to keep the financial industry alive. Sorry, but Mitt Romney does not get to re-write history to suit his daily need for self-affirmation. He missed the boat on this one. As far as US Taxpayers are concerned - the loans are all paid back. The government still owns a significant amount of stock and stock options in the company. And, a million people are still employed, the companies are hiring, and the companies are paying their pensions. All in all, a great deal for the nation and its economy given the awful choices at the time. However, a bad deal for people who are willing to watch an industry destroyed just to make a political point about unions.

Yeah, Cooley is making quite the name for itself on the blogs. Cooley is a unique place. On the one hand, they accept people into the program that can't get into other programs (low grades, low LSATs). On the otherhand, the classes and grading are tough. So, students run a continuing risk of flunking out during the entire three years of the program and typically cannot keep their GPAs high enough to transfer to another school. Hence, Cooley creates a large group of unhappy campers who either flunk out with high debt or graduate from a lower-tier school with low GPAs. And, in this job market, that is not a good combination. Having said that. If a student has a strong undergraduate GPA and/or LSAT, they can get a tuition-free law degree at Cooley. And, that can work just fine. Like I said, it's a unique place. And, now I'll be waiting for my cease and desist letter from their attorney.

About the only Republican who can claim credit for saving the automobile industry is President Bush, who extended a lifeline to GM and Chrysler to get them through until President Obama took over. I think it drives Romney bonkers that he was so completely wrong about the auto industry given his father's close association with Detroit. But, Romney was wrong. He called for bankruptcy without federal money, which would have been reasonable under normal circumstances. But, during the last months of 2008 and early 2009, there was no private equity that had the resources or the desire to dive into the abyss with GM and Chrysler. Romney's "plan" would have led to the liquidation of GM and Chrysler and Delphi (and who knows how much of the supplier base) and cost perhaps a 1 million jobs and 1 million pensions. That's why Pres. Bush did the responsible thing and throw a lifeline.

John Glenn High School won the State One Act Competition with Sweeney Todd back in February. That production featured a second story barbershop for Todd over the pie shop. Whenever Todd killed a customer, the victim would slide out of the barber chair, through a trap door, down a chute, and fly out onto the stage (into the pie shop "basement")! It also featured plenty of blood.

Sweeney has a great musical score and biting wit. The music is challenging for the actors but offers some great moments for the audience. Should be a good one.

Jimmy is a lobbiest paid by construction companies to lowering their labor costs. After he goes after prevailing wage, he'll be back next week to go after worker's compensation, health and safety standards, overtime pay, and all the other regulations that increase labor costs. In the short term, these changes may reduce the cost of public projects. But, in the long run, they really just reduce worker's pay, safety, and security while transferring the risks and costs associated with construction work from the construction companies to their workers. But that's not Jimmy's problem since he doesn't have to run dangerous equipment, lifting heavy things, or risking fallling from high places like the construction workers. After all, he's just a lobbiest.

Yeah, who wouldn't love to have a few beers with a guy who spends the whole evening complaining about birth control, amniocentisis, homosexuality, abortion, and people who want to import drugs from Canada?

This ad represents a favorite Republican fundraising tactic. It works like this - First, do or say something that is sure to offend the sensibilities of someone on the left. Second, claim that the predictable reaction to your offensive act is proof positive of liberal political correctness, and that the media elite have singled you out as a person of such importance that you must be attacked and silenced. Third, use your newly minted status as a conservative under attack as a tool to raise money via your handy dandy mailing list of conservative sympathizers. Notable recent examples of this tactic include (1) the "You Lie" incident at the State of the Union Speech which raised over $1 Million for the campaign of Rep. Joe Wilson and (2) the Jan Brewer - Barack Obama "tarmack tussle," which Brewer is using not only for direct mail fundraising but also to hawk her new book (very clever!). Hoekstra is already raising money based on "the backlash" to his ad - a backlash that he purposely instigated and that he is counting on to raise funds for his campaign.

Glad to hear that all three of the US makes are doing well. All three have significant numbers of Michigan workers. Great news for Michigan manufacturing. Thanks to both President Bush and President Obama for doing the right thing.

I don't think the school is very concerned about making money of the resort. They have essentially obtained an academic building and dormatory in a nice, low-cost location in the United States for $2.5 Million. They already have loads of applicants - children of high-income families in China, Indonesia, etc., - to fill the place as soon as it goes on-line. These folks pay big money to get their children educationed in America. The school can continue to run the golf course and banquet facilites to help with overhead, but anything they make from people staying overnight at the facility will be gravy.